Silent Light

Acclaimed by many as a youthful standard bearer for auteur cinema, Carlos Reygadas won some new supporters and lost a few old ones with his last film, the directly confrontational Battle in Heaven. By comparison, Silent Light sees him in more considered and mature form, this contemplative study of morality and spiritual crisis paying homage to Dreyer's Ordet, but remaining very much true to Reygadas' vision.

The film opens with a truly stunning six-minute time lapse shot in which a night time sky slowly turns to dawn and daybreak, a poetic and pure image which sets the tone for what follows. The setting is revealed to be a Menonite community out the outskirts of Chihuahua, Mexico, where the community speaks a medieval German dialect, and observes traditional values. The film centres on the plight of Johan, a husband and father who breaks the rules of his community by falling in love and having an affair with another woman. Johan has been honest with his wife about his adultery, but this does little to reconcile the conflicts which plague him. Jonas' inner turmoil is played out against the everyday habits and rituals of the family and the community - mealtimes, prayers, tender moments which punctuate the day.

Although these and the casting of non professional actors could suggest an ethnographic tone, Reygadas' control and mastery of image and sound leave no doubt that we are watching cinema at its most carefully and artfully constructed.

Sandra Hebron